


Let’s Talk About Billy Hargrove

by deadlymilkovich



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove Redemption, Hurt Billy Hargrove, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Open to Interpretation, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-25 10:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19744027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadlymilkovich/pseuds/deadlymilkovich
Summary: This is just a quick chat about Billy, simply because I love him, and I’m very sad over the fact that people can’t see why he acts the way he does and what causes him to be the way he isThis is an open conversation, and you can comment and talk to me in the comments over this as much as you guys would like !





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, I’m not here to degrade others opinions over Billy or his actions, I am here though to state what I believe about him, as well as context as to why I think the way I do

Let’s Talk About Billy Hargrove:

He’s a teenager growing up in an age where men showing emotion is bad, he grew up in a home with abuse thrown left and right, he didn’t have any good friends and he believed that if he stuck with those people he was okay. He tried standing up but he always got knocked back on his ass because of his dad, and he never saw his mom after she left. Max was really the only big female in his life, and they didn’t get along, but he cared about her.

He was basically forced, due to trauma, abuse, and forced beliefs to be the shining shithead people can’t seem to like. Which I get, because even with his past and his present you’d think he’d be kind like the other kids in this story, but he isn’t, but it doesn’t change the fact that he lives in that setting every single day. He doesn’t have any good friends, his family doesn’t try to stop what they do, and he doesn’t have any good parents like the entire gang does. He does what he does because of the lack of help and empathy he is given. He doesn’t have wiggle room to change because of it too.

You really have to think about the years of abuse and trauma he has been through to understand as well, because he very well could have been a kind and caring person, but after a while things stopped being okay, and he had to toughen his shell, or maybe someone who was able to be his support stopped supporting him, and due to that, he may have toughened his shell too much, because what else can you do when you have no one in a situation where you’re used as a punching bag.

Open to talk about in the comments ! I’m here for any of you if you have any similar issues, and I’ll list a few hotlines for any of those who need more than just my support

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255  
United States Elder Abuse Hotline: 1-866-363-4276  
Child Abuse National Hotline: 1-800-25ABUSE  
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE  
Family Violence Prevention Center: 1-800-313-1310


	2. The Racism Issue with Billy and Lucas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the last chat chapter, many people got into a fight over if Billy was racist or not, so I decided to also touch up on this subject, because I also have an opinion in this issue as well .
> 
> THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, I’m not here to degrade others opinions over Billy or his actions, I am here though to state what I believe about him, as well as context as to why I think the way I do

So I want to open this up by saying that; no, I don’t believe Billy is racist .

I also want to start by saying that the the only time he saw Lucas with max was when max yelled “you guys treat me like garbage”? His only visual of Lucas is her yelling at him, and that cause a lot of anger and anxiety from someone who has the abuse issue like Billy. Max is his step sister, and she’s his responsibility too. He may not like Max either, but you can see that he doesn’t want her to get hurt, or to feel how he feels, because he knows what it’s like, so for him to see Lucas and think him and Max are fighting is gonna put a damper on his visual of the kid.

It wasn’t about race, it was about the fact that Billy saw someone make Max angry and hurt, and it reminded him of how his father makes him angry, and makes him feel bad about himself, as though he did the wrong thing.

He told her to stay away from people like Lucas because he didn’t want her to hang around people he, sadly, assumed were abusive, because that’s how his brain is wired.

He isn’t racist, and he never will be. He saw his little sister get into a fight, and the man he saw her yelling at just had to be a young black kid, so of course people assume his defense against Lucas is racism. But it’s not, it’s abuse.

It’s anxiety over the fact that his sister may be hanging out with abusive kids, who are also mostly men, minus Eleven. Billy is abused by a man too, his own father, so that connection being made, of Max getting hurt by someone she considers family, or a loved one, like how Billy is hurt by a man he should have been able to look up to all his life, can also change how he thinks about the only kid he saw Max in a fight with; Lucas.

And, because I do want to point this out, he never mentions Lucas’ skin color. Ever. He never degrades Lucas, or calls him any slurs. He tells Max to “stay away from people like him” because his only time seeing Lucas was during a fight. He doesn’t view it as “oh he’s black, I can’t let Max hang around a black guy”; he views it as “he was fighting her, they were fighting, what if he hurt her, what if he abused her”

It’s not about race, and Billy is not a racist kid. He’s a kid who worries that other people go through the same shit he does. And he doesn’t want that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lets talk in the comments !


End file.
